Bayer, Alara Imaging to Collaborate

At the annual AHRA (American Healthcare Radiology Administrators) conference in Orlando, Florida, Bayer announced an exploratory collaboration with Alara Imaging, Inc.

"Radiation doses from computed tomography (CT) scans on patients are highly variable across patients and hospitals throughout the United States and other nations^.1 Radiation doses that are beyond what are necessary to perform adequate CT scans represents a modifiable health risk, as doses can be reduced through monitoring and feedback to hospitals and institutions^.2

To ensure proper patient safety, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has established a standardized method to monitor the performance of diagnostic CTs to discourage unnecessarily high radiation doses with the creation of new radiology patient safety electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs). These eCQMs use Alara Imaging software to access primary data elements stored within radiology electronic health records and translate them into data elements for eCQM calculation and reporting.

As CMS Measure Steward, the Alara SOC II- and HIPAA-compliant software supports health systems to securely transfer existing data from the electronic health record systems (EHR), radiology information system (RIS), and picture archiving and communication systems (PACS systems) to enable necessary computations for CMS quality measure compliance.

"As leaders in radiation dose management software, Bayer is thrilled to enter into this collaboration with Alara Imaging, Inc", stated Rich Dewit, Global Head, Digital Solutions, Bayer. "Bayer is committed to helping Radimetrics customers by engaging with ALARA to support their institutions compliance with the new Hospital Quality Reporting eCQMs by leveraging the Alara gateway."

"Alara is proud to collaborate with Bayer to support health systems across the U.S. with these important patient safety measures," Nate Mazonson, CEO and co-founder, Alara Imaging, Inc.

¹ Smith-Bindman R, Wang Y, Chu P, et al. International variation in radiation dose for computed tomography examinations: prospective cohort study. BMJ (Clinical research ed). Jan 2019;364:k4931. doi:10.1136/bmj.k4931

² Smith-Bindman R, Chu P, Wang Y, et al. Comparison of the Effectiveness of Single-Component and Multicomponent Interventions for Reducing Radiation Doses in Patients Undergoing Computed Tomography: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Internal Medicine. Mar 30 2020; JAMA Intern Med. 2020;180(5):666-675doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.0064